The program has all the regular speedup tools, with modules to remove junk files, clean the Registry, wipe browser and application histories, control your Windows startup programs, optimise your internet connection, free up system resources, and more.

These modules were of variable quality. The Disk Cleaner found more leftovers than CCleaner on our test PC: impressive. But the "Plugin Cleaner" found a "malicious plugin" that we couldn't even see was on our system. And it didn't tell us where the "plugin" was being used (a browser, Office, something else).

The App Store is a more unusual extra, an easy way to find and install further programs. If you need an Office-type application, for example, you might click the "Business" category, browse to LibreOffice, click "Install", and just wait: Baidu PC Faster will download the latest version and launch its installer for you.

The integrated Virus Scanner is another ingredient you won't find in most maintenance suites. It's not a market leader - AV-Comparative's October 2014 Real World Protection Test gave the Baidu engine a 94.1% protection rate, 15th out of 22 - and wouldn't be our first choice, but it's still useful as a second line scanner.

Bonus extras include a defrag module, file wipe and undelete tools, a context menu editor, LSP repair tool, and more. Some of these are basic, but a few are worth having, including a new tool to turn your PC into a wifi hotspot.

Baidu PC Faster has a few issues. Some modules are rather limited; it's a little intrusive, adding three services to our test PC which were running all the time; and although the English language translation has improved vastly, there's still more to do. (On reboot, a pop-up reminder of files to be cleaned appeared. A list box offered two options, both of them in another character set which we were unable to read.)

Version 5.1.3.109752 (full version history):
- Added scanning and uninstalling features for programs which lack their own uninstaller
- Optimized the interface of the scanning process
- Added a WiFi Hotspot feature—“Send file to Mobile” which can make you send file from PC to mobile.
- Optimized WiFi Hotspot feature to give you a better user experience

Verdict:

Baidu PC Faster is an easy-to-use PC speedup suite with some genuinely effective features. Its tools vary in their quality, though, and you should explore them carefully to find out what works for you, and what really doesn't.

There's a vast amount to learn, of course, and that's even before you start building your game. But there's plenty of documentation, tutorials, demos and sample projects to point you in the right direction.

The package is now entirely free, too - no annoying limitations, nag screens or anything else. Epic now only requires that you pay a 5% royalty after the first $3,000 of revenue per product per quarter. And even then, you "pay no royalty for film projects, contracting and consulting projects such as architecture, simulation and visualization."

8.48 brings:
- Optimized grass rendering and procedural foliage system preview
- Plugins available in Marketplace
- Improved accuracy for motion blur
- New Tone Mapper
- Support for all the latest VR hardware including Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Steam VR and HTC Vive, Leap Motion, and Sony's Project Morpheus for PlayStation 4
- "Scrubbable" network replays with rewind support and live time scrubbing
- Visualize the memory footprint of game assets in an interactive tree map UI